Longfellow has been for some time one of my favourite poets, but I just found these verses a day or two ago in my copy of Favorite Poems Old and New. The book was a Christmas gift seven years ago from my grandparents, and quickly landed on my short list of books that will go with me everywhere. (My father took both the images of the bay of Kinsale in Ireland during our visit of Christmas 2014.)

(In the spirit of Lemony Snicket: “woods”, a word which here means “a grouping of more than a dozen trees”, as in “Nebraska woods”. Similar to “Nebraska lake: a body of water big enough to turn a boat around in”.)

Remember that test house? The one with the fire department and the FBI bomb squad and the whole town on edge? It’s gone now. There’s a crater of dirt instead and one of those double-wide houses that they build then plant and expect it to grow a family like so many wildflowers on a bare green hill.